LL-L "Resources" 2005.05.19 (03) [E]

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From: Mike Morgan <Mike.Morgan at mb3.seikyou.ne.jp>
Subject: LL-L "Resources" 2005.05.18 (08) [E]


I just finished a busy couple workdays and so I seem to have missed the
original posting by Ingmar, but now, in keeping with my tendency to post on
ANYTHING but specifically Lowlands topics (^u^), I'll give my two (rusty)
cents worth on R/R's response.

Yes, Ingmar's "Meliha bir kız güzeldir" (Meliha is a nice/beautiful girl),
should probably have a star in front of it ... at least if it is supposed to
represent Republican Turkish (I can't speak for the Turkish of second- (and
third-?) generation Turks (and Kurds!) residing in Western Europe).

Although it has been some years (almost 17?) since I actually used Turkish
on a day-to-day basis, and even then it was a mix of "correct" Turkish and
the local (Adana) Turkish, I THINK I still have a reasonable command of the
idiom. And since I can probably still hear, in my mind's ear, this very same
sentence from my male Turk, Kurdish, Alawite Syrian and Zaza friends and
acquaintances (the name changed, of course, since I don't remember any
"Maliha"7s in our neighborhood), I would say that R/R's "Meliha güzel (bir)
kızdır" is, in fact, "correct", and the "+ bir" form even likely to be heard
frequently. BUT, the most likely form is one WITHOUT the final "copula"
"-dır"... at least in everyday colloquial speech. To wit, "Meliha, güzel
(bir) kız" (comma to indicate topical pause as well as it's normal literary
function to set off the subject).

My preference, however, goes to: "Maliha, aman ne de fıstık!" (loosely
translated: "My God, what a pretty girl Maliha is!", but literally "... what
a pistachio!" Though I know I heard it most in relation to our then
2-and-a-half year old son, where it might be translated as "cute", it is in
fact also used in reference to post-pubescence females in contexts where the
meaning is clearly best translated as "pretty" not just "cute".)

Mike Morgan
KCUFS
Osaka-Kobe, Japan

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